


The Thorn in His Side

by redrobinhood



Series: Foxes and Senators [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27478483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redrobinhood/pseuds/redrobinhood
Summary: Surrounded and beaten on Scipio, Thorn thinks back over his life in his last moments; his friendship with Fox and Stone, the good times and the bad, and the legacy he left behind.
Relationships: CC-1010 | Fox & Clone Commander Thorn (Star Wars)
Series: Foxes and Senators [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888375
Comments: 14
Kudos: 51





	The Thorn in His Side

Kamino, 24 BBY

“Your form is off.”

Fox turned indignantly to face the brother who had approached him and CC-3636. “I beg your pardon?”

“Sure, you can beg.” The brother stopped in front of them and crossed his arms. “But that won’t change the fact that your back foot should be pointing away from your body, not towards your opponent.”

“And who made you the expert?” Fox scoffed.

“Fox!” CC-3636 hissed.

Fox looked back at his batchmate with a shrug before he turned back to the brother before them. Then he realized that the brother’s training clothes were not the same clothes that he and CC-3636 wore. His eyes widened. “You’re an ARC Trooper.”

“And you’re a commander class. We’ve all had the same training. Now that we’re all acquainted with each other, your form is off.” The ARC stepped forward and pushed Fox’s feet into position. “Feel how much stronger your stance is now?”

Fox found himself speechless. He knew that the ARC couldn’t be much older than he was, maybe a few months, but his training showed in his posture; the way he held his head high even as he balanced on the balls of his feet. Nimble. Deadly. They had had the same training, but the ARCs were pushed harder, fed better, allowed a certain degree of independence that Fox had never had.

“So, what do you get out of this?” CC-3636’s words cut through Fox’s train of thought.

The ARC looked hurt for a moment before an impassive curtain fell back over his face. “Can’t I just want to help my brothers?”

“Your brothers? I thought the ARCs were built from a different genetic code.”

“The Alphas were, but not me. My batch doesn’t have anything in common with the Alphas. I don’t know why we were put there in the first place.”

“You don’t want to be an ARC trooper?” Fox asked.

The ARC shook his head. “I’d rather be a commander; be the one calling the shots.”

Silence fell over the three of them as Fox and CC-3636 contemplated the ARC’s words.

“If we had a choice,” Fox spoke carefully, “I think I would choose to not be a commander. Taking the burden of my brother’s lives into my hands, it’s too much.”

“I think that is a trait that would make you an excellent commander.” The ARC looked away from them to glance towards the chronometer on the gymnasium wall. “I need to go.”

“What’s your name?” Fox asked before the ARC could leave. His brother paused, mulling the question over.

“Thorn. Jango calls me a thorn in his side, so I suppose it’s Thorn.”

“I’m Fox. This is CC-3636.”

Thorn nodded. “Pleased to meet you.” He turned to leave, then paused and looked back over his shoulder. “I hope to meet you again, Fox, CC-3636.” Then he walked away.

“What an ass.” CC-3636 scoffed.

“I don’t know, I kinda liked him.”

“You would.”

Coruscant, 19 BBY

“Who’s in charge here? Me or you?”

“Neither of us. We’re unthinking cogs in the Republic machine.”

Fox rolled his eyes. “This is why the Chancellor doesn’t like you.”

“Because I don’t bend over backward to suck hi-.”

“Oh, shove it!” Stone cut in, whacking a loose hand against Thorn’s shoulder. “I’m beginning to understand why the Seppies use droids. The two of you are intolerable.”

“And the Chancellor is delusional.” Thorn slammed a fist down onto Fox’s desk, causing their helmets on the desk to shudder against the wood. “As the head of security, this plan of his will not work. We cannot maintain level five security at all critical access points to the prison under present circumstances.”

Fox sighed and leaned back in his chair, pinching his fingers across the bridge of his nose. “You’re not wrong.”

“You suck him off?”

Fox levelled a glare across the desk at Thorn. “About the prison. Look, I’ll cover it until we get this mess sorted out. It’s under my jurisdiction, or at least not under either of yours, so it’s my problem.”

“I can make it mine, if you like.” Stone offered. “Get the riot squad in there and shut the place down.”

“No.” Fox shook his head. “With all of these protests, you’ll be needed. There’s nobody else I trust more than you to represent us.”

Stone smirked. “What about Thorn?”

“Get me down there without a shirt and you’ll find the anti-clone stance will disappear overnight.” Thorn grinned, thumping a hand against his breastplate.

“And you’ll be decommissioned the moment it gets back to the Chancellor that you tattooed ‘Sheev Sucks’ on your chest.” Fox laughed.

“Two mynocks with one blast.” Stone shrugged as he stood. “Change in public opinion, and we’ll finally get some peace and quiet around here.”

Thorn stood after Stone. “I resent that.” His head turned from Stone towards the window, Fox and Stone soon mirroring the gesture as they processed the sound. “That was an explosion.”

The door to Fox’s office slid open and Captain Thire flung himself inside, all formalities forgotten. “The Jedi Temple has been bombed!”

Fox leapt to his feet and grabbed his helmet from the desk in one fluid motion before Thire could begin to catch his breath. “Stone, get the riot squad ready. The Temple is going to need a perimeter. Thorn, I want you and Thire on stand-by here. If they want help, provide it. I’m going to brief the Chancellor.”

Fox was out of the door before any of the men could begin to protest, Stone on his heels as he commed in his squad. Once they were alone, Thorn reached calmly for his helmet and gestured for Thire to follow him. They didn’t speak until they had sat down in Thorn’s office. While Fox’s and Stone’s desks were set up for one being to sit opposite more beings, perhaps moving a single computer terminal around to display information, Thorn had dragged an additional chair beside his and had affixed another computer terminal to that side so that two beings could sit beside one another and share information without turning one’s body or terminal.

Once Thire had logged in, they sat in further silence until Thire spoke. “What would you have me do, sir?”

Thorn sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking over to Thire. “What do you think we should do?”

“Whatever you have in mind.”

“No.” Thire’s expression morphed into one of insult, but he didn’t protest. Thorn continued. “Didn’t you learn anything on Kamino? Does ‘free thinking’ ring a bell?”

“But you’re my commanding officer.”

Thorn shrugged and reached down into the bottom drawer of his desk. He pulled out a red-lined kama and tossed it to Thire, who fumbled and caught it between his forearms. “We’ve completed the same training. As far as I’m concerned, we’re equals now- rank be damned. One day, you’re going to be the one calling the shots, and the odds are that Fox will be one of the ones you have to defend your ideas against. Better get used to it now.”

Thire stared down at the heavy leather in his hands, running his gaze along the Coruscant Guard Red trim. “We need to bring up the records on who entered and exited the Temple from the start of the first shift this morning until five minutes before the blast, prioritizing those who exited in the last twenty minutes before the explosion, then everyone who exited prior to that, then examine everyone who was still in the Temple.”

“Why?”

“Because if I were setting a bomb, I would stay with it until the eleventh hour, then scram before I could be caught in the blast.”

“So would I. Let’s hope the perpetrator thinks the same. Let me show you how to contact Temple Security and we’ll hope they cooperate.” Thire leaned over to watch over Thorn’s shoulder as he sent the most informal and short message he could think of to the Temple. When it had been sent, Thorn stood up and gestured for Thire to do the same. Thorn took the kama from Thire’s hand and knelt beside him, starting to affix the leather to Thire’s belt. Thire began to protest, but bit it back when he realized there was no use in arguing with Thorn. Soon, Thorn stepped back to admire his handiwork. “How does it feel?”

“Heavy.”

“Let me know if you want some anti-inflammatories later. Your hips will take some time to get used to it.”

Thire looked down, running his fingers along the red lining and watching the way that the leather swayed when he released it. “Thank you, Thorn.”

Thorn smiled at the look on his brother’s face and reached an arm over to clap him on the pauldron. “You look good, kid.”

Before Thire could respond, a notification sounded and Thorn slunk back down into his chair to read it. “The Temple is sending over the files. Are you ready, ARC Captain Thire?”

Thire sat back down, falling a little too quickly from the weight of the kama, and grinned at Thorn. “I am ready, ARC Commander Thorn.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

Kamino, 23 BBY

Fox didn’t glance over as Thorn settled down next to him, keeping his eyes on the dark horizon that stretched before them, seemingly forever. “What kept you?”

“Let a brother be busy.” Thorn scoffed, setting his helmet by his side and turning his face up to the stars, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath of the salty air. “How’s Wolffe?”

“Frustrated. He doesn’t think the Jedi are ever going to come for us.”

“And what do you think?”

Fox shrugged and gestured up at the stars above. “There are so many planets out there, Thorn. Too many for the Jedi alone. They’ll come for us. We’ll see something besides water, and water, and water for once in our lives.”

“Could get deployed to an ice planet and see frozen water.”

Fox punched Thorn’s shoulder even as he laughed. “I want to be deployed to a forest. I want to see trees, and grass, and dirt, and everything that was made outside of a test tube. Imperfect things. I don’t know if that exists, but if it does, I want to see it.”

“Yeah.” Thorn mused. “As good a place as any to die.”

“Thorn!”

“Look, Fox. I’m not disillusioned about my purpose. I’m going to be an ARC, I’m going to be deployed into some deep shit, and I’m going to die for a galaxy who will never know my name, or care to know for that matter.” He wrapped an arm around Fox and leaned his head down to whisper in Fox’s ear. “But at least I’ll have my men with me.”

Fox spun around and grabbed Thorn’s hand. “No way!”

“Just finished my last trial; top one percent. I’m going to be a commander.” Thorn’s grin stretched from ear to ear.

Fox laughed and flung his arms around his friend. “I’m proud of you, Thorn.”

“Oh like you did anything about it.” Thorn laughed as he hugged Fox back. “Think we’ll ever work together?”

“No.” Fox scoffed. “But I would like to. We’d make a good team.”

“Someone’s gotta be there to spot you.”

“You don’t trust me?”

Thorn pulled back from Fox and shook his head with a grin. “Not a chance. You know what they say about foxes.”

“They have beautiful fur?”

“They always get themselves into tricky situations because they think they’re clever. Sound like someone you know?”

“I should have never let Wolffe tell you that story.”

“You shouldn’t have.” Thorn pulled Fox back into his arms. “But I promise, for my little brother, I will always be there to catch you when you fall.”

“Hey, that’s Marshal Commander little br-.” Fox yelped as he suddenly found himself dangling over the edge of the training center roof.

“Even if I’m the one to push you.” Thorn laughed as he pulled Fox back up.

Fox shoved Thorn hard enough for him to fall down onto the roof under their feet. “Go to haran, Thorn!”

“I’ll meet you there!”

Coruscant, 19 BBY

Thorn stepped solemnly back into the room that he, Fox, and Stone shared in the barracks. Stone wasn’t back yet, Thorn had left him at the Senate, but Fox had been ordered to rest the moment that Ahsoka Tano was brought into custody. Thorn knew that that wasn’t likely. He was right. When Thorn turned back into the room after shutting the door, he found Fox sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the blank wall opposite. Thorn stood in the doorway of the room, waiting for Fox to acknowledge his arrival.

“I stepped away for a minute. An alarm was triggered, I went to check it out and when I came back-.” He brought a clenched fist to his mouth.

“You don’t think she did it, do you?” Thorn crossed the room to Fox’s bed and lowered himself to sit beside him.

“I don’t know. She says she was framed, and I didn’t see anything, but she was standing over their bodies, Thorn.”

“I sent Thire to check on some of the boys in medical. They said it wasn’t a togruta. I have Thire talking to the Chancellor about that now.”

Fox nodded, then sunk his teeth into his fist as a look of pain crossed over his features. “I should have been there. If I hadn’t stepped away-.”

“Then you could be dead too.” Thorn cut him off and grabbed his shoulder. “In this line of work, in our line of work, we can’t afford to think like that, Fox. What’s done is done, always. For some reason, the galaxy seems to want us to stay alive, so we’re going to stay alive until it decides otherwise. We have no say in the matter.”

“Do you really believe that?”

Thorn’s grip on Fox’s shoulder tightened. “No. I don’t. But it helps me sleep at night.”

Fox began to say something, then fell silent.

“Get your armor off, we’re going to sleep.” Thire stood and crossed the room to his bed, stripping off his armor from his blacks and tossing it onto the thin mattress. When he turned back, Fox had also stripped his armor off, setting it in a neat pile beside his bed. Thorn crossed the room again and shoved Fox down onto his bed.

“Is this how you treat your dates?” Fox scoffed, his humor back for a fleeting moment.

“Shut up, Fox.” Thorn flung himself on the bed beside Fox and pulled his brother over into his arms, resting Fox’s head on his chest. He felt Fox wrap his arms around his body from instinct. They had all learned how to hold their brothers on Kamino, where training accidents and sudden decommissioning had been all too common. “I’ll always be here for you, Fox.”

“I know.” Fox murmured against his chest. Thorn could already feel the tension beginning to leave his body. He hadn’t slept in nearly two days, his body needed this. “Don’t you dare leave me, Thorn.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Maybe, if he said it with enough conviction, it would be so.

Geonosis, 22 BBY

Fox stared straight ahead as the medic flitted around him, moving only to respond to the medic’s questions when they came. No, his armor hadn’t been penetrated. No, he did not believe himself to have any internal injuries. Yes, he remembered what happened. He flinched as the medic reached for his throat, gritting his teeth as an antibiotic cream was rubbed across the abrasions the shattered rock had left behind across the soft skin between his blacks and helmet. Some would scar. Some would certainly scar.

He checked his wrist-comm as he stepped back out of the temporary shelter back into the hard desert. There was a comm that he had missed. He stepped off the path that ran through the temporary camp and opened it. A summons with a tent number, a map of the camp, and nothing else.

He took a moment to memorize the map before he set off towards the tent. On the way, he passed Wolffe- he was alive- who was covered in sand and talking to a Kel Dor Jedi. Wolffe and Fox exchanged tense nods as Fox passed, and the Kel Dor turned to follow Fox with his gaze. Fox could feel the Jedi’s gaze tracing across the commander-yellow stripes that fell down his arms. His and Wolffe’s association would be clear to him.

Fox took his helmet off as he entered the tent, taking a moment for his eyes to adjust from the desert to the dim lighting. There were two men already inside, both yellow-striped and sitting on supply crates. One was clutching his bandaged stomach, and Fox could see that parts of his armor had melted. He looked up as Fox walked in, and his expression morphed from a blank look of pain to one of surprise.

“Fox?”

“Thorn!” Fox crossed the room to his friend’s side, stopping beside him, afraid to reach out and disturb his wounds. “What happened?”

“Missile. Fox, my squad, I-.” Thorn’s voice broke and Fox sat down beside him on the crate so that he could throw his arms around Thorn’s shoulders. “I was too far to the side. It should’ve killed me too.”

The other commander in the room nodded. “We were ordered to push towards the _Lucrehulk_ cores, so we did. Then the tanks showed up. And the _Lucrehulks_ began to fall.”

Fox cringed, his grip on Thorn’s shoulder guard tightening. “I know. We were right beside you.”

“Gentlemen.” The three commanders looked up as a Jedi walked into the room, another yellow-striped commander following him. “My name is Mace Windu. Do you know why you were summoned here?”

Fox watched the other commander’s face light up in recognition at the man sitting with him and Thorn. It was Ponds, Ponds had been the one assigned to General Windu. Which meant that the man with him and Thorn was Stone. Fox knew the two of them had been sparring partners on Kamino just as he and Wolffe had.

It was Thorn who broke the silence. “Because we failed?”

The Jedi shook his head. “Nobody failed. No. I am told you three were chosen because each of you excelled in your training. Who is Marshal Commander Fox?”

Fox’s breath caught in his throat as Stone, Ponds, and Thorn turned to look at him.

Mace Windu nodded. “Congratulations, Marshal Commander. You have been specifically chosen by the Chancellor of the Republic to head a corps of clone troopers on Coruscant. Commander Stone and Commander Thorn will serve under your command, as will the remains of your current corps and regiments. As of just a few minutes ago, you are the commanding officer of the Coruscant Guard.”

A few minutes later, Fox was on his knees puking behind the tent with Thorn patting his back and Stone at Thorn’s side, ready to catch the commander should he begin to sway from his injuries.

Neither of them said a word.

Coruscant, 19 BBY

Thorn sat still as Stone’s hands moved quickly over his head, the whining of the electric clippers filling the room. Thorn had already gone over Stone’s head for him, cutting the hair as close to the skin as he could, then Stone had gone over Thorn’s, leaving a little more hair behind, before moving in with steady hands to retrace the patterns that tracked across Thorn’s skull; the wings that Thorn had once taken the time to trace across the sides of his head, then the geometric designs that Fox and Stone had added across the back, where Thorn couldn’t see but could still trace his fingers along during slow days in the office. Fox had refused to allow Thorn to return the favor. Which had not been a surprise, he had also turned down getting matching tattoos with his commanders.

Fox himself had just stepped out of the room with a quick, ‘Chancellor calls.’ Neither Thorn nor Stone had cared to question him on why the chancellor would be calling him half an hour before he knew Fox would show up at the Senate. Very few things could be so important that it couldn’t wait half an hour. And none of those things would have only involved Fox. If it was an emergency, surely all three commanders would have been called in.

“How many credits would you put down that they’re having an affair?”

“Thorn, I will shave a dick into your hair if you don’t shut up about Fox and the Chancellor.” Stone traced over a final line then clapped Thorn on the shoulder. “If anything, it’ll be some ridiculous political drama that we’ll all laugh at over drinks this evening.”

“Seventy-Nine’s?”

“Please.”

Thorn crossed the room back to his bed to collect the top of his blacks and his armor, but took a moment to first glance over his datapad before reaching for either. “By the end of today, I’m gonna need it. Looks like some bastards are threatening Senator Chuchi again now that’s she’s working with Senator Amidala.”

“Chuchi. That’s the Pantoran senator, right?”

“That’s the one.”

“The one whose window you broke?”

Thorn made a noise of indignation and turned back to Stone. “Window frame. And look, it’s much safer now, even if it might jam when opening and closing.” The senator made sure to update him on the window’s behavior on any occasion they ran into one another in the hall. As of last week, it was still sticky. Thorn had offered to send Commander Fox over to fix it, but his offer had been denied. He would offer it again soon. “You know, she reminds me of Fox.”

Stone paused halfway through assembling his armor to shoot Thorn an incredulous look. “How?”

“Well, to begin with, they’re both hypercompetent. And Senator Chuchi is just as devoted to her job as Fox is to us.”

Stone sighed. “Did Jek and Rys put you up to this?”

“What are Jek and Rys doing?”

“Trying to get Fox a date.”

Thorn laughed, then flinched and brought his hand to his side, resting it on the mass of scar tissue that stretched from his hip to cross his stomach. “You should promote them. They come from a good batch.”

“And you should go in for bacta therapy.” Stone’s gaze was fixed on Thorn’s side.

“I’m fine. It’s just acting up again.” Thorn pulled his blacks on, covering the scar, and began to assemble his armor over it before Stone could protest otherwise. “Tell you what, you promote Jek and Rys and I’ll see a medic.”

“I’ll consider it.” Stone laughed. He waited for Thorn to finish reassembling his armor before falling into step with him as they left the room together.

Thorn didn’t see Fox the entire day. He never returned to his office, and Thorn found himself regulating more tasks to Thire than usual when he was ordered to lock down the Senate building to protect the Chancellor. It was after noon when he found out the reason why.

Stone brought the news to him and Thire when he joined them for lunch. “A clone from the five-oh-first tried to assassinate the Chancellor this morning. My boys have been ordered to hunt him down and-.” Stone stopped with a grimace. “I can’t be a part of this. Fox is with the Chancellor, he’s the one running the show.”

Thorn frowned. “He’s been with the Chancellor for hours.”

“The Senate is under lockdown.” Thire cut in. “If there was a threat on the Chancellor’s life, Fox would be the best one to protect him.”

“I should be there with them.”

“If Fox wanted you there, he would have asked.” Stone said. “You forget, he’s our commanding officer.”

“That doesn’t make him impervious to fratricide! Or any of us! No clone should ever have to kill a brother! I don’t know what in the blazes in going on in the Chancellor’s mind, but I lost any faith I once had in him after the way he handled the Temple bombing. If it were up to me, I would-.”

“Thorn!” Stone hissed, slamming his hand on Thorn’s desk. “You are not irreplaceable.”

Thorn closed his eyes and bit down on his tongue until it began to bleed as he tried to quell the anger rising inside of him, causing the room to fall into a tense silence.

Thire was the first one to speak again. “If I had to kill a brother,” he said cautiously, “I’d probably turn the blaster on myself.”

“Good luck with that.” Thorn threw his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “They bred or programmed it out of us. It’s nearly impossible to get your finger to pull the trigger.”

Thire looked away from his brothers, out of the office window at the city stretching around them. “Nearly.”

Thorn managed to make it through the rest of the day, dragging Thire along with him, until the sun had set, and they were ordered to end the Senate lockdown. No words were exchanged between he and Thire after the order had been given, but Thire did reach over to squeeze Thorn’s hand before they rose to head back to the barracks.

When they reached the barracks, everybody was clustered in the middle of the common room. They parted as Thorn and Thire entered, revealing a very pale Fox leaning against the back of one of the couches, a small squad of men around him. Thire froze at the sight and Thorn continued alone through the crowd to Fox’s side.

“Fox?” Thorn lay a gentle hand on Fox’s shoulder.

Fox gave no response at first, his eyes staring blankly ahead. Then his chest shook, and his shoulder shuddered under Thorn’s grip as he brought a hand to cover his face.

The men surrounding them went quiet.

“Fox, what happened?” Thorn gently prodded, rubbing his brother’s pauldron.

Fox shook his head as he let his hand fall to his side and turned to meet Thorn’s gaze. Thorn shoved down the rise of fear in his stomach at the look in his brother’s eyes. “It should’ve been set to stun.”

Then Fox collapsed.

Many of the men gasped and a few cried out as Thorn fell to his knees on the ground to catch his brother, resting him gently against his chest and feeling for his pulse. Someone screamed a call for a medic.

“No!”

Every eye in the room turned back to Thorn.

“No medics.”

Stone had been right earlier when he’d told Thorn he wasn’t irreplaceable. Even Fox, a marshal commander and his commanding officer, was not irreplaceable if he became ‘defective’. Thorn scooped Fox up into his arms, ignoring the way Fox’s head lolled against his shoulder, and stepped back into the crowd. They parted before him again. Some of the men looked scared, others looked angry, all moved away from Thorn as if he was poisonous.

“Thorn?” Stone stopped him in the hall. “Is he-?”

“He’ll be fine.” Thorn snapped. “Go talk to the men, please.” He forced his voice to soften on the last word. He wasn’t angry at Stone. He could have never been angry at Stone. They’d suffered too much together for Thorn to ever be angry with him. But the system, he could be angry with that. “And no medics.”

In their quarters, Thorn lay Fox gently on his bed and began to disassemble his armor. When the red armor had been stripped away, Fox began to stir, and Thorn quickly leaned over to take in his face as he awoke.

“You should let the Kaminii kill me.” Fox muttered.

“No.” Thorn’s voice shook even on the one word and he quickly stripped off his own armor so that he could crawl into bed beside Fox and offer him human warmth instead of unfeeling plastoid. Fox barely responded to his touch as Thorn leaned up against the wall and pulled him into his lap, resting Fox’s head on his shoulder and leaning his own head down against Fox’s. He began to run a hand up and down Fox’s back, feeling Fox melt into his touch at the gesture. “I’m here, Fox. I’m here.”

Fox finally broke, and Thorn’s grip tightened around Fox’s body through the sobs that shook them both. Thorn felt a few tears run down his own cheeks as he held onto his brother. Fox’s agony tore at Thorn’s heart and he selfishly wished that any other of his brothers had fired the shot. Perhaps they had, but he knew from the reaction of his brothers as they darted back from them that it had been Fox who fired the fatal shot. Fox’s own words had told him as much. His gun was always set to stun. But tonight, something had happened to change that, and Fox had killed a brother. Thorn had forgiven him from the moment that Stone had mentioned the cause for his absence throughout the day, but their brothers would not be so forgiving, and no one more than Fox.

Thorn didn’t notice Stone’s presence when he entered the room, but he did notice the blanket that appeared over them and the press of another warm body at his side. Thorn shifted slightly to the side so that Fox was pressed between his and Stone’s bodies, reaching over to take hold of Stone’s hand. Thorn didn’t know how long they lay there, shaking slightly with Fox’s body, until all three fell into an uneasy sleep.

Coruscant, 20 BBY

“You can’t just promote whoever you want to promote, Thorn.”

“That’s why I’m telling you! I want him as a captain so I can refer him to Kamino for ARC training.”

Fox nearly choked on his drink. “You want to make Thire an ARC?”

“I want him to be in line for command in the event of one of us dying.” Thorn paused to take a sip of his drink. “It’s a possibility we have to consider. And considering how Kamino is slowing the production of commanders, we may have to produce our own.”

“And you think that Thire is it.”

“I do. He reminds me of you, you know. Back on Kamino.”

“It’s rude of you to call him naïve and stupid.”

Thorn laughed loudly, not noticing the looks on the beings around them as they turned towards the two commanders. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Oh we were all naïve and stupid before the war.” Fox stared down into his drink, remembering nights on the roof of the training center with Wolffe and Thorn, the arguments, the bruises. At the time it had been intolerable, but now he missed their meaningless fights, Thorn’s stargazing, the time Wolffe had threatened to bite Fox, how Fox had been able to laugh so easily, without hesitation or regret.

“Before Geonosis.”

“Before Geonosis.” Fox echoed. Geonosis had beaten the naivety from them, singlehandedly turning the Jedi from unstoppable gods into mortal beings. They had later learned that the Jedi were even flawed beings.

Thorn’s head cocked to the side and Fox turned to follow his gaze. In any laboratory test, they had the same level of hearing, but on the ground, Thorn could always be counted on to be the first to pick out an anomaly.

“Let’s check it out.” Fox said before the sound could fully register in his mind. Something in him had already processed it and decided on the next course of action before his conscious brain could identify the origin of the sound.

Following the noise, they found themselves standing before a burning building. Coruscant Rescue Ops were there, and a steady spray of foam was being sent out from their transport onto the building. One of the men gave a nod of recognition to the two commanders.

“Please, she’s still inside!” An elderly female twi’lek was begging to one of the rescue officers, who was calmly trying to explain that they couldn’t risk the lives of their personnel for any one being.

“I’ll do it.”

The twi’lek, the officer, and Fox turned incredulously to Thorn.

“Where is this being?”

“Third floor, room 314.” The twi’lek said.

Another elderly female twi’lek stepped forward. “Her name is Fenn. She’s grey with long fur.”

Thorn nodded and tapped the side of his helmet. “Give me ten minutes and she’ll be back with you.”

The twi’leks erupted into a chorus of thank-yous and Fox bit back a sigh as he followed his brother into the building, sullenly bending down to avoid the burning top of the doorway.

“Thorn, why are we doing this?”

“The Coruscant Guard never leaves anyone behind!” Thorn began to bound up the staircase with Fox following right on his heels.

“And the Coruscant Rescue Ops know what they’re talking about when they refuse to send more beings into a burning building, di’kut.” Fox caught his breath as they reached the third floor. “Stone is going to be pissed if we die on him.”

Thorn stopped at the first room next to the door, reading the number before placing a kick against where the lock rested under the durasteel. The door slid open with ease, and Fox and Thorn entered the smokey room.

“Fenn?” Thorn called out, walking further into the room.

“Son of a kriffing mynock, Thorn, you bastard.”

“That’s me.” Thorn turned around to see Fox holding a tooka as far away from his body as possible. “Aha! Grey with long fur!”

“I don’t want this.”

“Give her to me.” Thorn took the tooka from Fox and pulled her close against his chest, scratching under her chin with one finger.

Fox’s heart was not touched by the display. “We need to get out of here, Thorn.”

“Don’t get your greys in a twist, Fox.” Thorn followed Fox back into the hall and back down the staircase. When Fox turned to glance back over his shoulder, Thorn still had Fenn pressed up against his chest.

“You and your animals.” Fox hissed as they stepped out the front door, giving Thorn no time to respond before the two twi’leks rushed them to pull Fenn from Thorn’s arms.

“She’s all right.” Thorn said as he deposited the tooka into their waiting arms. “Beautiful girl, too.”

“How can we ever thank you, Commander?”

“Thorn. And this is Marshal Commander Fox.” Thorn tilted his helmet in Fox’s direction and Fox felt his heart ache at the use of his full title. Marshal Commander Tooka-Saver was not going to be his legacy.

“I’m Mariela, and this is Sienn.” Mariela said, gesturing to the woman who had been arguing with the Rescue Ops officer.

“Really, is there any way we can ever begin to thank you?” Sienn asked, taking hold of Thorn’s arm.

Fox allowed himself to cringe under the helmet, anticipating the next word from Thorn’s lips.

“Actually, we were about to go back to the bar. Care to join us?”

“We’d love to! Drinks on us, boys!” Sienn said, raising Fenn up in a cheer.

On the other hand, Fox considered that a few more rounds of drinks weren’t the worst idea Thorn had ever had.

Scipio, 19 BBY

Thorn paced restlessly in the ship. Something felt wrong. Something was wrong.

His last conversation with Thire echoed in his head. They had argued. Thire had wanted to come with them, but Thorn had insisted he stay on Coruscant in his stead. _‘With everything that’s gone wrong, somebody needs to stay behind to run security for the Senate. You’re the only one with the capacity to carry that out at this level. And the only man I trust.’_

_‘But you’ll need me on Scipio if things go south!’_

_‘If things go south, you need to stay alive to take my place in the Guard.’_

Thire had shaken his head, looking very young and afraid. _‘I can’t.’_

_‘Yes, you can. I gave you this kama for a reason, Thire. Be proud. I know I’m proud of you.’_

Thire had been shaking a little as they embraced. Perhaps he had also sensed the dread that Thorn did now. He ran through a mental list of everything they had done so far and had yet to do and came up with no cause for the pool of dread in his stomach. Something was about to go very wrong.

“Commander Thorn. You’d better take a look at this.”

His train of thought broken, Thorn stopped pacing and made his way to the screen that his men were gathered around.

“It looks like an invasion fleet, sir.”

The dread twisted itself into a knot as Thorn followed the mass of incoming ships with his gaze. “We’re caught out here in the open.” He signaled to two of the men by the screen to follow him and sprinted to the weapons bay. “Grab launchers, we’re going to need to take some of these clanker ships down if we plan on standing a chance.”

Thorn could practically hear Fox’s jab as he reached for Hammer. _‘Going to take down a ship with a Z-6?’_ It was comforting.

The two men, now armed with rocket launchers and their ammunition, followed him down onto the platform towards the group of men who stood guard at the bottom of the ramp.

“Get the men off this landing pad and beyond the city gates!” Thorn shouted, waiting for them to run off to relay the message before fumbling for his comm. The Senator. She was completely unprotected now. He should have pushed to go into the city with her. He brought up his comm and pressed the button that he had programmed to reach the senator. The comm beeped as he waited for her to pick up. “Senator Amidala, come in, please.”

“What is it, Commander Thorn?” Her voice finally came through the comm and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re under attack by the Separatist garrison. Looks to be a full invasion.”

“Invasion?”

“We can’t get to you.” They would try, but Thorn could already see the vulture droids circling. “I suggest you get to a ship as soon as you can.”

The droids dived. Thorn and his men ducked as they felt a searing heat wash over them. When they straightened up, it was to the sight of their ship sliding off the platform. Thorn took a moment to grieve the men inside before his focus was brought back to the situation at hand by the destruction of the gunships around them. They were trapped.

He began to fire at the vulture droids, knowing that he was wasting ammo but hoping that the perceived danger would give his men a reprieve from the bombing. One fell in a fiery blast from a rocket fired by one of the guardsmen at his side and the bombers veered away.

“Let’s move! Hurry!” The few men on the platform fell in behind him as he rushed towards the gates. They needed shelter, they needed to get off the platform. He raised his hand to tell his men to halt as two droid gunships parked between them and the gates, opening their insides to drop super battle droids and commando droids onto the platform. Thorn glanced back to see another gunship depositing more super battle droids. They were trapped.

Now, he was glad that he had left behind the to-be Commander Thire and he whispered a silent apology to him for the deaths that would befall Thire’s friends. His squad. His batchmates. Thorn was cursed. First on Geonosis, and now here on Scipio. But this time, he would die beside his men. He could hear their cries of pain even now, and turned in time to see a commando droid snap a guardsman’s neck. Thorn turned Hammer on that droid with a snarl. When he turned back he realized that he was the last guardsman standing. He braced his feet against the landing platform and began to twist Hammer around to fend off the approaching droid forces.

Finally, he was hit.

He stumbled backwards with a cough as the blasterfire dug in under his ribs. He could feel a spray of blood coat the inside of his mouth and helmet with the sudden exhale. At least now, he had nothing more to lose.

A droid tried to take advantage of his stumble, but Thorn planted his feet and swung Hammer up into the droid, sending it flying backwards. How Fox had made fun of him for this in training. Keeping the momentum, he struck at another droid, and another, and then his eyes caught on the security camera at the end of the platform. Fox. Fox would see everything.

He snarled and planted his feet once more. If Fox was going to watch him die, he would die fighting. “For the Republic!” He put as much as he could into the scream, hoping the camera would have sound, hoping that Fox would know that he stayed loyal until the end.

The droids were learning. When he spun to take out a B2 it was ready for him. The shot struck deep into the center of his chest, and he could feel it burn through his heart. He stumbled and tried to raise his gun once more, but another shot ripped through his left shoulder and caused his hand to fall from Hammer.

The final shot to his right shoulder brought him to his knees. His chest was on fire- dying had never hurt this much before- and some part of his brain was aware that he had stopped breathing. That bodily function had given up sometime between the second and fourth shot.

A commando droid stepped forward and levelled its blaster at him.

Thorn’s life flashed before his eyes as it fired.

Coruscant, 19 BBY

Thire stood at the window in Thorn’s office. His office, now. He watched as the shuttle came in to land, tracking it with his eyes until it moved out of his sight. He’d refused to join Fox at the medical center. He wasn’t brave enough to looks upon the bodies of his mentor, his batchmates, his brothers.

Thire found his hands tracing over the red outline of his kama again. Thorn had chosen it for him, Thorn had chosen him. Thire could help but wonder if Thorn had been wrong. His fingers reached for his belt and he undid the straps that held the kama into place, letting it fall into one hand. It was heavy, as was the new weight of his responsibility. He didn’t think he could bear the burden of either. He fondly folded the leather in half and sat down in Thorn’s chair- his chair now- and placed the kama back in the bottom drawer from which Thorn had once produced it.

Thire looked up when Stone walked into the room. The other man looked tired, but also resilient, as he crossed the space and pressed a warm mug of something into Thire’s hands and sat down in the empty seat beside Thire.

“I should be doing something right now.” Thire said when it was clear that Stone wasn’t speaking first.

“You already are.” Stone reached over and lay a hand on Thire’s shoulder.

When Thire’s shoulders shuddered, Stone took the mug from his hands and set it on the table before wrapping his arms around his brother. Thire had no more tears to cry, but he buried his face in Stone’s shoulder as dry sobs shook his body. When his breathing had evened out, Stone continued to hold him, running a hand up and down his back. “I should have died with them.”

Stone pressed a kiss to Thire’s temple and brought one hand up to cradle the back of Thire’s head as the other continued to rub up and down his back. “We can’t afford to think like that, kid.”

A light beeping came from Stone’s comm and he sighed and wrapped his arms around Thire one more time.

“You need to get that.” Thire said, pulling away from Stone.

Stone nodded sadly, looking down at the blinking light, before he looked back up to Thire. “I’m sending your batchmates in here. Don’t shut them out.”

Thire watched Stone leave before trying a sip of the drink, something hot and sweet. It made his stomach turn. He didn’t deserve something so nice. He was trying to decide if he should return it to Stone or pour it out when Jek and Rys walked in and enveloped him in their arms.

Fox somberly watched the shuttle land. He refused to step forward to greet it, even as the crew began to disembark. It wasn’t real. Nothing had felt real in days. That’s why he was here now. Besides, he owed it to his men.

He continued to stand still as they began to unload the bodies; men whose armor was riddled with blasterfire or melted under the heat of some explosion. His men. Watching the quiet parade of bodies as they were taken into the medical facility for processing, Fox was glad that Thire hadn’t come with him. It had been his squad too, his men. He was the only survivor.

Fox’s posture stiffened as a new set of armor came into view. He would have known that helmet anywhere. He tracked the stretcher with his eyes until it was upon his position, then he turned to follow it into the facility. Minutes stretched into hours as he followed them through the facility, until the medical staff stopped and lowered the stretcher to the floor beside those stretchers already there. Fox waited for the staff to step out of the room before he fell to his knees beside Thorn’s body. He rested a hand on Thorn’s chest before he felt something in him break and he leaned over and pressed his forehead to where Thorn’s breastplate gave way to the abdominal plates. With a hand still resting on Thorn’s breast, he could feel the deep holes in the plastoid under his touch. Fox had seen the security footage. He had watched as the first shot had hit, then the three in quick succession, but had turned away before he could watch the final shot be fired. He wondered now, with the wounds under him, which one it had been. He reached over Thorn’s body with his other hand and took Thorn’s limp hand in his.

He wanted to cry, or scream, or even just let tears run silently down his face. But he couldn’t. Something in him had broken and he no longer felt human. Thorn had always been there to put him back together, he had promised that when Fox fell that he would always be there to catch him. But he couldn’t. Not anymore.

Their last conversation ran through his head. They had been in his office, Fox leaning back in his chair and Thorn pressed against the window, looking out at Coruscant.

_‘I’m going with the boys to Scipio.’_

_‘Why?’_

_‘The Chancellor requested it. I have a bad feeling about this one, Fox. But it’s Senator Amidala. It’s not like she couldn’t use the extra security.’_ He had paused, stepping away from the window and moving to sit on the desk before Fox. _‘I’m leaving Thire here. If something happens to us on Scipio, the chain of command can’t be broken.’_

Fox had shaken his head. _‘Come back to me Thorn, I can’t do this without you.’_ It had been a few weeks since he had shot Fives. In that time, Thorn and Stone had effectively taken Fox’s duties upon themselves, but they had never left him alone. Everywhere he went, Thorn had been right beside him with a steady and understanding hand should Fox falter.

For once, Thorn hadn’t given Fox his promise. Instead he had leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together _. ‘If something happens, Fox. It’s been an honor to serve under your command.’_

 _‘Don’t say that.’_ Fox had begged, pushing himself to standing when Thorn had taken a step back and flinging his arms around his closest friend. _‘Don’t say it like it’s a goodbye.’_

 _‘It’s not a goodbye.’_ Thorn had promised before he untangled himself from Fox’s arms and stepped towards the door. _‘It’s a see you later.’_

_‘Then I’d better see you later, Thorn.’_

_‘You will, Fox.’_ He’d said it with such conviction. Fox didn’t know if Thorn had believed in an afterlife. He’d never asked him. There were still so many things that he didn’t know about Thorn. That he would never know.

Fox didn’t know how long he’d lain there, as quiet and unmoving to the world as the dead around him, before a member of the staff slipped a needle into his neck and everything fell away.

Fox walked numbly through the barracks, clutching Thorn’s armor to his chest. He had been given the pieces that had been declared salvageable. Thorn’s breastplate had not been declared such and had been sent to be melted down, but Fox could still smell the burn of blasterfire even on the untouched pieces of armor. He passed Thire, curled up on Rys’ bed with Jek pressed against his chest and Rys curled behind him. Sheltered.

Fox stepped into his room, where Stone was slowly disassembling his armor beside his bed. Fox crossed the room to lay Thorn’s armor on the bed that had once been his before stepping back and stripping his own armor away from his blacks. He hesitated for a moment before exchanging a look of unease with Stone. Stone nodded, and patted the mattress beside him before he lay down on his bed. Fox walked over to lay beside him, turning away from his brother to look across to the bed that had always been empty. He supposed that bed would become Thire’s now, or when he was ready to call it his own. Fox closed his eyes as he felt Stone press their backs together and hoped that he might be able to sleep tonight.

Scipio, 19 BBY

Thorn felt the blasterfire burn into his chest and a shallow gasp escaped his lips as he began to fall. The stars above were different here, so far from home. Far from Kamino. Far from Coruscant. They blurred above him as he fell, coming back into some form of clarity when he had hit the ground.

Dying had never been this painful before. On Geonosis he had been at peace. Shock had rapidly set in as his damaged side had bled out into the hard sand. He had accepted his death then, and when he had awoken to a medic kneeling over him he had begged to be allowed to die. He’d been living in an in-between state ever since. And now, it was his time again. For the last time, he wished that he had died on Geonosis when it had been painless. Now, the holes in his chest burned into him and he could feel every bit of the destruction that they had wrought.

He felt his last breath leaving his lips, and he tried to force another one into his chest but found his lungs refusing to expand. That was it, then. He tried to find Coruscant in the sky above, but the heavens were too blurry and his vision was rapidly tunneling. A silent apology to Fox ran through his mind, and he closed his eyes, hoping that someone was waiting on the other side to catch him.


End file.
